PPC Strategies for When You Don't have an Unlimited Budget

PPC Strategies: Go Wide, or Go Deep?

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is without exception, the single fastest way to get directly in front of consumers who are looking for your products and services. However it’s not without limitations and risks. 

One of the biggest issues I see with poorly run PPC campaigns is under-budgeting. Sure, sometimes an overzealous entrepreneur over bids past the point of diminishing returns, but face it, you…and everyone you know is trying to scrape by with less.

Assuming that budget is an issue (and it’s always an issue) you need to bid smart. You need to pony up with enough budget, and you’ve got to have realistic exceptions. With Googles latest move of removing the entire right side of the paid search listings (the sidebar) you need to bid enough to show up in the top 4 search results. Otherwise you get banished to the dungeon…the bottom of the search page where advertisements go to die.

So how do you parley a finite budget into a profitable PPC campaign? Here’s a hint; you have to compromise. Yep, sorry to break it to you but you have two choices; go wide…or go deep.

It’s all about the eye balls

Pay-Per-Click, is just what it sounds like. You pay every time someone clicks on your search ad on Google, and goes to your website. Understand that PPC is a competitive, real time market bid system. You are actually competing with other companies that sell the same products and services as you for that precious real estate on the Google search results page.

The more keywords you are bidding on, or the larger the geographic area (more competitors), the larger the budget that you need to be competitive. You’re going to get a finite amount of clicks before eventually depleting your budget.

Trying to bid on too many keywords across too big of an area dilutes your ability to compete consistently for each of those keywords. You either have to cut down on the keywords, or cut down on the area. In other words, go wide, or go deep…

Suppose you sell glass and mirror products, such as glass shelving, shower door enclosures, bathroom mirrors, etc. Your service area is all over Southern California. You have several major categories (ad-groups) that you want to promote:

• Glass Shelves
• Bathroom Mirrors
• Shower door enclosures
• Storefront windows
• Commercial glass doors

Those categories add up to a lot of keywords spread across a lot of area. It would take a fortune to compete against all those other glass & mirror companies throughout all of Southern California. If you have a sufficient budget you could dominate the market, but that would be quite an investment. 

2 Strategies when you have a finite budget:

Suppose you identified your growth markets with the highest margins in the residential area as Shower Door enclosures, and your highest margin items in the commercial sector as Storefront Windows. Unfortunately you don’t have enough budget to bid on all those keywords for both product lines across all of Southern California. What do you do?

Scenario #1: Go Wide:

Perhaps you made the decision that you need to grow the residential area of the business and expand your service area. You might opt to “go wide” by focusing your budget on just shower door enclosures and put the Storefront Windows on hold for now (or just advertise locally). Because you are not diluting your budget across all those “Storefront Window” keywords, you now have enough budget to bid higher and get top placement for the “Shower Door” keywords.

This strategy allows you to expand geographically while promoting your chosen high-margin growth product. You can then roll some of the ROI into promoting your next product(s) in this expanded area.

Scenario #2: Go Deep:

Suppose you’re committed to growing both the residential and commercial sectors of your business and product expansion is more important than geo-expansion. Then you might opt to run a balanced campaign that promotes multiple product lines…but in a more localized, concentrated geographic area.

This strategy allows you to market more of your products and services in a smaller, local area. You can then roll some of the ROI into expanding your geographic reach.

The key to parlaying a modest budget into an effective advertising campaign is to be strategic, patient, and to not bite off more than you can chew.

To view the original article Click Here